Ferndale brass supplier to expand space, add jobs

An $8.6 million industrial renovation and construction project in Ferndale has received the state's green light for $718,000 in city tax-increment financing incentives.

The Michigan Strategic Fund Advisory Committee this morning approved the incentives for the expansion project by Brass Aluminum Forging Enterprises LLC, which would involve interior demolition and renovation of an existing 212,000-square-foot vacant building on the 20.41-acre Wanda Street site and construction of a new 100,000-square-foot building there.

An existing guard shack at the site would also be demolished.

Brass Aluminum Forging would occupy about half of the 212,000-square-foot building; the other half would be expansion space for two other Ferndale businesses, according to Michigan Economic Development Corp. documents.

It wasn't immediately known what other businesses would move to that space. Messages left with Brass Aluminum Forging have not yet been returned; Michael Shore, a spokesman for the MEDC, did not have additional details on the project. A message left with Derek Delacourt, director of the Ferndale Community & Economic Development Department, has not been returned, either.

Brass Aluminum Forging “specializes in the production of brass, copper and aluminum forgings for products that include valve bodies, weapons components, and air/hydraulic fittings,” according to the MEDC.

The MEDC says the project would result in the creation of about 50 full-time jobs by Brass Aluminum Forging and another 50 jobs by other building tenants. Most of the jobs would be skilled manufacturing with average wages of $14 per hour; some of the jobs would be engineering and supervisory positions with average salaries of $78,000 per year.